“No.” Alex shook his head and looked out the window. The rain had picked up. Blurry people hurried by, heads bowed, umbrellas tilted to the downpour. After his experiences at Harry’s office and David’s house, his worry over not being able to use the power was now doubled by the fear of it . . . using him, without his realizing.

His grandfather gave a sympathetic smile, as if reading his thoughts. “Look. You can only give it a go, Alex. Maybe you can do it, maybe not. But I think you can. We know the power is still there for you. That force gave life to the golem, and the golem is a thing that seeks a master for direction—the power wants to be used. It wants to be put to work, a . . . channel. And, for the moment, you’re it, whether you like it or not. Some kind of connection has been made, and you have some aptitude for using it—I saw you that night. On the bridge in Prague. You commanded enormous power, Alex, you conducted it. Do it again, and we’ll get Harry back easy as pie. It’s just a case of, you know, figuring it out.”

“Yeah.” Alex drew a breath and tried to think about it calmly. His grandfather was right. The power was there. He’d just made himself invisible, after all. That was undeniably pretty cool. All he had to do was work out how he’d done it.

“Easy as pie,” Alex repeated. He sat straighter and stole a glance at the old man, still troubled by the sudden look of exhaustion that had come over his grandfather in Harry’s office.

The old man was acting as blasé as ever, but Alex knew enough to suspect some of it was just that: an act. His grandfather was worried, and he was really counting on Alex being able to use the power to help him free Harry from whatever prison he was in.

“Okay.” Alex nodded. “I’ll try. I don’t even know what it is you want me to do with it, though.”

“Well, I’m not really sure myself. But we can set fire to that bridge when we get to it.” The old man opened his door and climbed out, then reached into the back for his Gladstone. He dumped the big bag on the driver’s seat and rooted through it, pocketing some implements Alex couldn’t identify, before pulling out the cloth sack he’d collected from Harry’s office and swinging it over his shoulder. “Back in a jiffy.”

Alex watched him disappear around the end of the street, then sighed and pulled out the old toy robot, steeled himself to the task, and concentrated.